One of my favorite apps for my android phone and tablet is BigOven. (BigOven is also available for iPhone, iPad, and Windows Phones and on any computer through their website) I have been using this site for well over a year now and it has saved dinner several times now. BigOven is a pretty straight forward website. It has a very simple design that makes reading on a mobile device much easier. When I first started using this app it was purely for the “use up leftover” feature. In fact this is still my favorite feature. However since this time they have expanded the program.

“Use up leftovers” is the most unique part of this app. After clicking this option users are directed to a clean, basic page. On this page simply select three items that you have on hand or that you would like to use in a recipe. A list of all of the recipes on the site that include those three ingredients will be given. Not all combinations have recipes but the majority do. I also find this helpful if I’m at the farmer’s market and I am considering purchasing an item. I know what I have at home but BigOven helps me find recipe ideas or even just to feel out if the ingredients will go together.

BigOven has added some new features like video, a great resource for those cooks who are more visually oriented. There’s also a community section that has many different groups that you can join based on your likes. Like many traditional recipe sites the front page lists categories of recipes for browsing as well as recipes that have recently rated high.

If you are someone who likes to keep all your recipes in one place BigOven can help with that too. When you’re browsing it lets you save your favorite recipes which are then filed in the “my kitchen” area of the website. Other categories in this area are;

Try Soon

Recipes I’ve made

Recipes I’ve posted

Post a recipe

Grocery List

Kitchen Stream (a neat little tool that shows you what other people are cooking/eating!)

Not all of these functions are available in the free version of BigOven. If you opt for the $15.99 year Pro Membership you can select recipes, and the ingredients are then transferred directly to the shopping list. The Pro version also includes nutritional information and the ability to post recipes privately.

Overall this is a really good application for home cooks. I do wish that they offered the grocery list function as a part of the free membership but understand why they don’t. Even if you only use this app for the “use up leftovers” capability you won’t be disappointed.

Though my specialty is home-cooked Mexican cuisine, I love lots of other international foods. As a result, I’m always trying something new in my kitchen. If you’ve ever eaten at a Brazilian restaurant (especially a Brazilian steakhouse), you may have had these addicting little light and fluffy cheese rolls called pão de queijo. I loved them so much after having them the first time that I went on a quest to try to reproduce them in my own kitchen. This is my own recipe after playing with close to a dozen other recipes and tweaking elements of each to my liking.

Tapioca or cassava flour is fairly easy to find in most stores that carry organic or ethnic groceries. Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are two national grocery chains that typically carry tapioca flour.

My husband requests these frequently, and though I like to pretend they’re a lot of work so he thinks they’re an extra-special treat, the truth is that they’re very simple!

Bonus: this recipe is also gluten-free.

Ingredients:

1 cup of water

1 cup of milk (whichever kind you prefer; I usually use 2%)

1/2 cup of oil

1 teaspoon of salt

A 1-pound package of tapioca flour (450 g)

2 to 3 eggs (2 if they’re large or extra large; 3 if they’re small)

7 ounces (a little less than half a pound or 200 grams) of grated parmesan cheese. You can use freshly grated or to save time, Kraft Parmesan cheese from the canister works fine, too.

Preparation:

1. In a big pan, bring the water, milk, oil and salt to a boil.

2. Remove the pan from the heat and add the tapioca flour. Mix well with a wooden spoon and let it cool down.

3. Put the mixture in a bowl, add the eggs and knead well. Dough will be extremely sticky.

4. Add the grated cheese little by little and keep kneading until the dough is smooth.

5. Roll 1 tablespoon of mixture into small balls. Tip: Grease your hands with a little vegetable oil before making the dough into balls. Wash your hands once in a while if necessary.

6. Place the balls on a baking tray lined with parchment paper for baking.

7. Bake the cheese rolls in pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until golden on top.

8. To serve, put the cheese rolls in a basket covered with a cloth to keep warm.

Yields 2-3 dozen rolls depending on how large you make them.

Freeze all rolls that you will not cook immediately in an airtight container and heat to eat fresh out of the oven. You can heat them directly from freezer to oven; it just takes a few extra minutes to cook. They’ll stay fresh for up to 8 weeks in the freezer.

Maura Hernandez is a Chicago based journalist and photographer who loves to travel…and eat! She blogs about traditional Mexican cooking, culture and travel at The Other Side of The Tortilla.

]]>http://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2011/01/brazilian-recipe-easy-cheesy-bread/feed/3Low Carb Recipe: Lettuce Cups with Picadillohttp://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2011/01/low-carb-recipe-lettuce-cups-with-picadillo/
http://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2011/01/low-carb-recipe-lettuce-cups-with-picadillo/#commentsSat, 15 Jan 2011 22:57:41 +0000JDiazAsperhttp://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/?p=992Picadillo is a staple at my house. It’s an easy dish to make and then you can use the leftovers in a lot of different ways. One of the healthier options is making lettuce cups with picadillo. These are surprisingly good and even my kids like them because there is a burrito, eat with you hands appeal to them. And if the kids are not fans of lettuce, you can serve them picadillo with rice old style while you have this sort of nuevo Cubano version. Or whip up a Pastel de Carne if you want to offer them some extra wow.

The Ingredients:

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp curry

1 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp olive oil

3 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1/4 cup chicken stock

2 pounds of low fat hamburger meat

1 cup red peppers

1 cup chopped cilantro

10 romaine leaves

1 lime

Instructions:

Heat up oil in a pan and put spices in. Add beef and use a fork to blend spices and cut up meat. Add broth. Cook about 20 mins.

Toss beef with lime, red pepper and cilantro.

Spoon beef into lettuce cups and serve right away.

If you want to add some yum , you can layer in avocado slices. I wouldn’t serve this to guest but on a week day these feel a bit different and lighter. Enjoy and I hope this helps you with any resolutions to eat a bit healthier in 2011!

]]>http://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2011/01/low-carb-recipe-lettuce-cups-with-picadillo/feed/3Holiday Cupcake Recipe: It’s all about the toppingshttp://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/12/holiday-cupcake-recipe-its-all-about-the-toppings/
http://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/12/holiday-cupcake-recipe-its-all-about-the-toppings/#commentsSat, 11 Dec 2010 16:26:45 +0000JDiazAsperhttp://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/?p=983I tend to bake a lot during the Holidays! Cupcakes are always welcomed at holiday parties, especially if you add some holiday touches. These are a big hit with the kids and grown-ups that sneak some too!

The batter is pound cake like and very tasty! These do not require any real skill to decorate so perfect for the cupcake novice! I use soy in all my recipes to bake as it’s lighter and I like the taste. We also have milk allergies in the house so no dairy at my house and we don’t miss it.

]]>http://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/12/holiday-cupcake-recipe-its-all-about-the-toppings/feed/7Thanksgiving Leftovers Recipe: Turkey Curry Souphttp://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-leftovers-recipe-turkey-curry-soup/
http://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-leftovers-recipe-turkey-curry-soup/#commentsSat, 27 Nov 2010 23:24:39 +0000JDiazAsperhttp://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/?p=964I am getting tired of the turkey by now but I hate wasting food so I needed to get creative with the turkey leftovers. I also think curry has a way of transforming the taste of food so I went with Turkey Curry soup to give my turkey a much needed makeover.

I made enough soup for two as this is more of grown-up meal. This is a super fast soup which is relatively healthy.

Ingredients:

2 cups left over turkey

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp curry powder

1 tsp garlic powder

2 cardamons

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1/2 onion – don’t bother to chop

1 cup frozen peas and carrots

5 cups of water

Instructions:

Brown the onion in the oil

Add turkey and all the spices. Coat the turkey in the spices and brown a bit.

Add water

Add potato

Add Peas and carrots

Cook at until boil and then simmer for about 20 mins. (potatoes are firm but you can put a knife thru them)

Serve immediately with extra pepper on top

This soup is not a dish I would serve to guest but for a fast home cooked soup it does the trick. Enjoy and maybe add a piece of that left over pumpkin pie for dessert.

]]>http://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-leftovers-recipe-turkey-curry-soup/feed/5Yuca Recipe: My Favorite Thanksgiving Side Dishhttp://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/11/yuca-recipe-my-favorite-thanksgiving-side-dish/
http://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/11/yuca-recipe-my-favorite-thanksgiving-side-dish/#commentsThu, 25 Nov 2010 13:11:45 +0000JDiazAsperhttp://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/?p=961I love Thanksgiving it’s almost as festive as Christmas with no shopping or wrapping of gifts required. Carrie over at the Tiki Tiki Blog asked me to share a traditional recipe we use on Thanksgiving. It was easy for me to choose yuca. I have a mild obession with Yuca. I like it boiled, mashed, fried and baked. On Thanksgiving, I pile up the yuca then add a little bit of turkey and cranberry to go with it.

So what is Yuca? Yuca is a rather ugly looking root that Caribbeans just love and other folks are confused about. I really see no point in using fresh yuca so go for the frozen.

On Thanksgiving, I like to make yuca that has a bit of visual pop so I use olives and lots of onions to give my yuca a “pick me” look :

Ingredients:

2 pound bag of Yuca

3 tbsp lime juice

1 cup olive oil

1 tbsp Adobo

5 garlic cloves chopped

4 medium onions chopped fine

30 small green olives chopped

4 bay leaves

Instructions:
Yuca

Boil yuca in salted water about 25 minutes (until you can put a knife through one)

Important to asustar (scare) the yuca so it does not get mushy! So drain and run cold water over your Yuca.

Put the cooked yuca in a serving dish

The Sauce:

Saute onions in olive oil until brown

Add the garlic, olives, bay leaves and Adobo (a spice mix available in the Hispanic section of supermarket)

Add lime juice

Add salt and pepper to taste

Pour over the Yuca

Yuca can look and taste bland so make sure your onions get brown and you use olive oil to add some needed color and sabor to your yuca. Adding olives is not traditional but adds a nice flavor. If you have leftovers, drain off the sauce, chop up your yuca into cubes size and fry. Leftover yuca makes great home fries!

The annual “Black Friday” post-Thanksgiving shopping rush lost some of its luster two years ago when a customer was trampled to death, and bricks and mortar retailers are being advised again to take precautions.

Iphone App developers have been working to spare you from the crowd while enlarging your bargain target area. But make a self and product assessment before you take the plunge. What do you really want, and how many hoops are you willing to jump through to get it? Lifehacker has a good list of resources for checking whats out there before you look around.

To the phones!

Black Friday [brace yourself, the names will get repetitive] seems one of the best out there. It has an easy to find and use search function. You would think that would be standard, but you would be mistaken.

Black Friday also has social network tools which make it easy to hook up Twitter and Facebook to the app’s finds and pump them out to the greater universe.

Black Friday Wish demonstrates the need to start out with a goal. The store search is largely limited to standard big box stores, but if you find what you want the app makes it painless to spread the word via Twitter and Facebook. But the stand alone “Tell A Friend” function is email only. No scans of deal ads.

The app’s ”Top Deals” are varied and include Groupon offerings, and its compilation of store ads is fairly vast and easy to access, if a little eye-straining.

But there’s no snappy means of sharing the love via social networks.

TGI-Black Friday has a very detailed category list ["Blank Media," anyone?], and while it has no Twitter or Facebook capabilities the app allows easy emailing of your search finds. It has a vast list of shops but below that a puzzling ghost list of stores with no deals. Look upon the greyed-out Apple store and be sad [Dollar General is there too for contrast].

Black Friday Ads does best at that, providing scads of scans of store ads and promotions.

The app has some trouble keeping up though. A number of stores listed in its list of most recent ads lead to dead ends.

No Twitter, Facebook or even email functions.

BlackFriday.fm opens with a news page, which might give you ideas about where to target.

The app has an electronic-heavy category list, and for individual items it lets you see how many views each item has had, giving you a rough notion of how likely something might be to sell out. You can email item pages, but not via Facebook or Twitter.

If you decide to get out and actually brave the crowds you needn’t go unarmed. With the pic2shop app you point your iPhone camera [any iPhone, not just 4G] at a barcode and the app gives you on the fly cost comparisons so you can buy or walk.

I used it on a children’s book and got useful information :

But the eBay copy had better be signed by the author.

Where do you go to find deals?

]]>http://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/11/adventure-in-retail-find-black-friday-iphone-apps-that-rise-above-the-crowd/feed/2Chicharrones de Pollo Recipe: Fried Chicken Latin Stylehttp://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/11/chicharrones-de-pollo-recipe-fried-chicken-latin-style/
http://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/11/chicharrones-de-pollo-recipe-fried-chicken-latin-style/#commentsSat, 20 Nov 2010 14:08:52 +0000JDiazAsperhttp://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/?p=934When I am fried, I like to fry. Why? It is so tedious and labor intensive and that it gets you into this zen-like “fried zone”. With the added benefit that when you are done, you have some yummy stuff to eat and share.

To get in the “fried zone” state, it really doesn’t matter what you fry. I had chicken in the frig so I went for Chicharrones de Pollo (Fried Chicken Latin style).

Here are my most important frying tips:

Make it hot: Frying requires heat

Use plenty of oil: Embrace that you are not making a low fat dish

Consider olive oil: Gives a great flavor

Fry it to hell: Frying is not a thing of moderation so go for the crisp

Pay attention: You don’t want to burn your food or yourself. No tweets, calls, etc while you fry!

The key difference between Chicharrones de Pollo and regular fried Chicken is that you use spices versus flour for the coating. It is spicier and relies on the Chicken skin for the crispiness.

Ingredients:

Four Chopped up Chicken breasts with skin and bones

1 TBSP of Adobo ( You can get this in the Hispanic Food section, Goya has a good one)

1 tsp cumin

2 tsp garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 cup olive oil

Instructions:

Start to heat up your oil ( I crank it to a bit short of high)

Mix all spices in a bowl

Rub the spices on the chicken on both sides

Carefully with long tongs place the chicken skin down in the oil.

Fry it like you mean it for about 25 minutes with frequent rotations

Lay-out paper towels and pat off excess oil

Serve asap as they are best hot

I serve these with Batata Bravas and a simple salad. I hope you get into your fried zone” and enjoy!

]]>http://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/11/chicharrones-de-pollo-recipe-fried-chicken-latin-style/feed/9Boliche: Pot Roast Recipe Cuban Stylehttp://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/11/boliche-pot-roast-recipe-cuban-style/
http://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/11/boliche-pot-roast-recipe-cuban-style/#commentsMon, 15 Nov 2010 02:27:00 +0000JDiazAsperhttp://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/?p=925When ever I am really busy, stressed and burned out, I turn to cooking. I especially like to cook for friends. So this Saturday even though I didn’t have time to cook I did it anyway. I am now way behind but happy.

I started cooking at 3pm which is way late for Boliche (Cuban pot roast). I like my pot roast to fall to pieces. My Husband prefers it a bit less falling apart so this is a personal choice. I would go for cooking for 6 hours minimum if you like the falling apart version.

Ingredients (serves about 10):

5 pounds of beef (i used bottom round)

4 tbsps of olive oil

5 garlic cloves

4 onions

1 lemon

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp salt

2 beers

1/cup chicken broth

Instructions:

Make a marinade for the beef. Put lemon juice, 2 tbsps of olive oil , garlic cloves, herbs , salt and pepper in blender. Coat the beef with marinade and let sit overnight or at least 1 hour in a pot that you can cook in.

Take beef and either grill it or brown it in a new pan with 1 tbsp olive oil. I like the smokey flavor of the grill.

Add oil to the pan were you marinaded the beef and add the onions. Cook till very brown.

Add back the beef with 2 beers and 1/2 cup of broth. Cook high till it boils then lower and then cover simmer for as long as you can (6 hours is what i do). Add the extra broth if the juices run low .

]]>http://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/11/boliche-pot-roast-recipe-cuban-style/feed/5Sopa Magica: Green Plaintain with Garlic Chicken Souphttp://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/11/sopa-magica-green-plaintain-with-garlic-chicken-soup/
http://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/2010/11/sopa-magica-green-plaintain-with-garlic-chicken-soup/#commentsSat, 06 Nov 2010 22:50:52 +0000JDiazAsperhttp://www.mobiletestkitchen.com/?p=916I was a conference yesterday at around 3pm I started to shiver and get nauseous. 24 hours later, I am not sure if this is the flu, stomach virus or food poisoning but I feel terrible. I am sharing my sad tale because I have a soup that I make that is great when you have a terrible stomach.

I am not sure why but the sopa magica (magic soup) works but I think it’s the combo of green plantain and garlic provide some potent relief. It’s a very tasty soup even if you aren’t sick. It is very fast and easy to make. If you feel really bad start off with just some broth and potatoes in your bowl and save the rest for when you are better.